Touch of Heartache

by Joy Penny

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  A Love for the Pages Chapter One Preview

  Touch of Heartache

  Stay in Touch

  Joy Penny

  Touch of Heartache by Joy Penny

  © 2017 by Joy Penny/Amy McNulty. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including written, electronic, recording, or photocopying, without written permission of the author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Published by Snowy Wings Publishing and Joy Penny

  Cover photo by Dmitriy Raykin via Shutterstock. Cover design by Berto Designs.

  The characters and events appearing in this work are fictitious. Existing brands and businesses are used in a fictitious manner, and the author claims no ownership of or affiliation with trademarked properties. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, and not intended by the author.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Continue to Stay in Touch

  About the Author

  Look for More Romance Reads from Snowy Wings Publishing

  A Love for the Pages Chapter One Preview

  Chapter One

  Lilac had been sitting on her big news for days—well, more like hours, but it certainly felt like days. She’d wanted to tell Gavin almost immediately, but she hadn’t been in the mood for one of his mood-killing—though well-intentioned—lectures, and waiting until Brielle and Pembroke joined them seemed like the smarter idea. They’d act as a buffer for Gavin’s paternal instincts coming to fore and then she wouldn’t have to repeat herself to each one individually.

  Besides, she wanted her college life to go out with a bang. And boy, would this be a bang.

  She hadn’t eaten much of her farewell-cafeteria-food lunch. Instead, she opened her mouth, about to deliver the news, when she noticed Brielle staring down at her lunch tray as if it were the ashes of a recently-lost pet. “Are you crying?” she asked, the wind knocked out of her sails just a bit. “Bri, are you actually crying?”

  Laughing, she looked at Gavin and Pembroke, hoping to share her amusement with them, but one was blowing his nose and the other was trying to touch up her makeup. Okay, everyone is crying…

  “Just because some of us are made of stone doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t going to miss this place,” said Brielle, her mouth full of a tater tot she was chomping with way too much relish.

  Sometimes Brielle really got on Lilac’s nerves. But not today. No, she wouldn’t let her get to her today.

  “A college is but four walls and a roof, my dear,” Lilac said, putting some of her high school drama teacher’s advice into effect by gesturing grandly as if about to deliver a Shakespearean monologue. “Albeit four very expensive walls and a roof, but walls and a roof nonetheless. No graduation is going to take away what this place means to you.” She put her palm to her heart. “You’ll always find it here.”

  Gavin gave Lilac such a mischievous grin at that, she could have recited what he said next if she’d been so inclined. “In your ginormous boob?” he asked.

  “Har har,” retorted Lilac, whapping his shoulder. Gavin was the only one she’d ever let get away with talking to her like that. He had a heart of gold and was as sweet as a grandma—to everyone except her. But that’s why she knew she was his best friend. Suddenly hit with the realization that she wasn’t going to be seeing her bestie every day from now on, she started playing with her food, mushing the greasy tater tots into one corner of her tray. It doesn’t matter, she thought. This is just how life goes. We’ll never not be friends. You can’t get stuck in the past.

  She nodded to herself more than to anyone in particular. “I don’t know. I think it’s about time we move on. Crappy French toast and tater tots served on a divided tray? What are we, middle schoolers or soon-to-be-independent adults?”

  “Says the soon-to-be elementary school teacher,” said Brielle between sips of her orange juice. “Get used to these,” she added, pointing to the crumbs left in the squares on her tray.

  Ha! The perfect segue. Thank you, Brielle’s need to rub things in.

  Lilac shrugged. “Maybe someday. Maybe not. I don’t have to anytime soon.”

  Pembroke spoke up then—Lilac had almost forgotten she was even there. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Aren’t you going to be teaching at Jacobson Primary this fall?”

  “Nope.” Lilac dug into her scrambled eggs with glee. Let them chew on that, she thought, taking her time to swallow her food.

  “Shut up,” said Gavin as he nudged her. “Are you serious?”

  “Would I joke about something like that?” Lilac grinned, doing her best toddler-caught-breaking-Mommy’s-favorite-lamp impression. Then she laughed. On second thought… “Don’t answer that.”

  Brielle practically threw her fork down on her tray before crossing her arms. “When were you going to tell us?”

  Ah, Brielle. She’d been Lilac’s roommate the first two years of college before Lilac had spent a semester her junior year in Spain. When she’d come back, she’d wheedled her daddy into splurging on an apartment off-campus for her and Gavin. Not because she hated Brielle or anything, but because she’d preferred spending time with Gavin. And frankly, after she’d come home from living in another corner of the world, Gavin—with his broader horizons, his love for big cities—had seemed like more sophisticated company.

  Brielle cradled her head. Cradled her head. Like what Lilac did was any concern of hers. And what was she planning on doing that was evidence she had her life any more together than the rest of them? Job hunting. While working her high school job, cleaning for old folks and snobs with cash to burn and slobs too lazy to do it for themselves. True, Lilac’s mom and daddy usually hired cleaners after throwing one of their soirees or when they’d be gone for a while—which was pretty often. But there was something about having strangers going through your house on that kind of intimate level that gave Lilac the willies. But that was what Brielle had to show for herself. Going through other peoples’ garbage.

  “Don’t have a conniption over it,” said Lilac, shrugging as she gently placed her own fork on the table. “Something better came along.”

  “Better than a job offer?” asked Gavin, studying Lilac like she had a screw loose, but grinning devilishly nonetheless. He knew her too well. He might not have approved of everything she did, but… “A paying firm job offer, I might add?”

  Therein lay the crux of the matter. Sweet Gavin, smart and handsome and ready to take on the world… But th
e world wasn’t so ready to take him on. He’d gotten what could lead to the job of his dreams—in marketing, which, if she were being honest, Lilac thought dull and a waste of his talents—but he had to start off as an unpaid intern. If Gavin hadn’t already known some friends in Chicago whose couch he could crash on until he started raking in the big bucks, there was no way he could have pulled it off. All because he was gambling on being hired by summer’s end. He had nothing to fall back on, no one else to turn to if that didn’t pan out. There was his grandma, but she lived in such a small town, Lilac had thought she’d phased through into another dimension—a dimension where people dug holes and only peeked out from under their rocks to spit out a strange sense of pride in their vitriol and hatred—the one time she’d gone with him there. Even though Gavin’s grandma was a peach, there was no way Lilac would abandon Gavin to that place once more. No, if things didn’t work out how Gavin hoped they would, she’d find a way to let him come stay with her and Aunt Frankie.

  Clearing her throat, Lilac tapped her fingers on the table, trying to shove all thoughts of unpleasantness aside. “I repeat: Something better.”

  “Did you… get a job offer abroad?” Pembroke didn’t even try to hide her gasp as Lilac snorted.

  Poor girl. Lilac knew Pembroke had been envious of her time in Spain—not because she’d wanted to go to Spain, but because her own plans to study abroad in Japan had fallen through. Lilac really had no idea what Pembroke planned on doing—that girl was quieter than a nun who’d taken a vow of silence. She didn’t even remember how exactly Broke had started hanging out with their group. It had had something to do with Gavin, of course. Easily two-thirds of Gavin’s day was devoted to taking care of others. Sometimes Lilac hated the fact that she had to share him.

  “I wish,” she said, thinking about how nice it might have been to live in Spain long-term—or to live anywhere stylish, really. But she’d only ever pictured herself lounging around in a Spanish villa, and Daddy had been quite clear he wasn’t going to fund an extended vacation. As if he ever did anything but go on extended vacations himself. “About the only thing that would guarantee me that is a job teaching English, and I don’t think a change in venue would make enough of a difference when I really wanted a… change in job.”

  There. She’d said it. The whole and honest truth she’d been keeping even from herself for far too long.

  Leave it to Brielle to shit all over that. “You’re not going to be an elementary school teacher?” she asked, the acid practically dripping off her tongue. “After all the hard work you put into becoming one?”

  “Maybe I wished I’d have taken a cue from you,” Lilac said, forcing some friendliness she didn’t feel at that moment into her tone. She loved Brielle—she really did. But sometimes… “And had studied something more useless so I didn’t have to spend so much time in training and studying for my license.”

  “Lilac,” said Gavin. He darted his gaze away and shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe Lilac had gone so low.

  But it was true. Brielle had a history and a philosophy major, and what was she going to do with those degrees? Nada, apparently.

  Brielle bit her lip and kept quiet, a glaze covering her eyes. Lilac had gotten her right in the gonads—metaphorically, of course.

  “I’m serious,” said Lilac, her defensive shields lowering somewhat. “All that wasted time just showed me… I’m not cut out to be a teacher.”

  “That’s not true!” Pembroke spoke up again, and Lilac smiled. She was sweet, for sure, although she couldn’t remember if Broke had even seen Lilac around kids much. She might have, though. Basically, anytime Lilac was around kids, she got into a zone and the whole world around her melted away. Time flew by alarmingly fast between breaking up fights over toy cars and dispensing hugs on demand.

  “That’s nice of you to say, sweet pea,” said Lilac, ready to finally drop the big news. “But wait until you hear what I’m going to be doing instead.” Shoving her tray aside, she leaned forward, as if ready to drop the juiciest piece of gossip imaginable. Only Gavin and Pembroke took the bait, though Brielle’s eyes were still on her. “I’m. Going. To. Tildy. World,” said Lilac, injecting pride into each word.

  Brielle looked as if she’d been struck. “Wait, what?”

  Yeah, yeah, it’s not Disney World, thought Lilac, already ready to defend her choice. Growing up as a Tildy Tapir fan, Lilac knew just how rare it was to find someone who appreciated the happy-go-lucky cartoon tapir with quite the same fervor she did. All the other Orlando theme parks had nothing on Tildy World, small as it might be. She didn’t care what her friends thought.

  “Doesn’t your aunt live in Orlando?” asked Gavin. Aunt Frankie and Gavin had hit it off big the few times they’d both been over to her parents’ for a get-together. Two souls in harmony, like peanut butter and jelly.

  “She does!” said Lilac. “And Mom and Daddy only approved of this venture because I’m going to move in with her, at least for the first few months. Not that I need their approval exactly.”

  Pembroke tucked a strand of her blue-streaked blonde hair behind her ears as she stared at Lilac, clearly completely lost. “But… are you going to be on vacation for that long?”

  Okay, this was taking more to explain than Lilac had thought necessary. “It’s not a vacation,” she said, sighing and shrugging at once. “Well, not that I won’t ever just hang out at the park or head to the beach. Kind of the whole point of relocating to Florida instead of even-worse-winters-than-here-like-that’s-somehow-possible Minnesota.” Lilac threw her hands up, ready to lay it all on the table. “Aunt Frankie knows someone who works at one of the resorts as a manager. She knew he was looking for an assistant manager and voila.” She rotated her hand to gesture to herself. “I became available in an instant.”

  Maybe she didn’t want to have any regrets. Was that so hard for her friends to believe? Something sharp tugged beneath her breastbone, a little voice at the back of her head telling her she was headed for disaster.

  “They hired you as an assistant manager?” asked Brielle, oblivious to Lilac’s attempts to squash her own regrets. “Right out of college? With a degree that has nothing to do with running a hotel at all?”

  Lilac smiled. Brielle of little faith. “What can I say? I’m a charming interviewee, even over Skype.”

  She paused, taking in the scene around her. Okay, is everyone at this table now staring at my breasts?

  Lilac was no stranger to people staring at her double-Ds, but she expected more from her friends of all people. She cleared her throat, eager to stop associating her figure with her success. She’d worked hard at preparing for that interview, even if—especially since—it had all been last-minute. “And I’m just in training to start. Earl was especially keen to hear about my experience with elementary school children since running interference between the resort’s childcare center and the management office would be a big part of my duties.”

  Gavin made a face like he’d just sniffed sour milk. “You’re working for a guy named Earl. Earl.”

  Lilac dismissed him, waving a hand. “He could be named Billy Bob Jimbo for all I care if he got me a job in Florida.”

  “I don’t know,” said Gavin, injecting something sly into his words. “There’s just something ominous about a guy named Earl.”

  “I’ll behave,” said Lilac, smacking her fist into his shoulder. “It’s a thin-haired, chubby-faced man old enough to be my father named Earl. And I’m sure there’s a Mrs. Earl.”

  “Hasn’t stopped the type before,” said Gavin, that beleaguered-dad-about-to-lecture tone in his voice clearer than ever. He exchanged a look with Brielle and something silent passed between them, as if they’d spoken about Lilac and men many times before.

  They probably had, the traitors. Gavin better not have told her that Lilac’s tastes usually strayed toward the older gentleman. In theory anyway, if not in practice yet. But not this guy regardless. Charming, he wasn’t.<
br />
  “Stop being such a drama queen,” said Lilac. “So anyway, enough about me.” Time to steer the conversation away. Far away. She wasn’t going to end her college experience arguing with her closest friends about things that didn’t even really concern them. “Pem, what about you? I know Brielle’s got a plan for the summer until she finds that amazing job that awaits her, but you’ve never let us know what you have planned. Did you ever find anything?”

  Cue Pembroke shutdown. “No. Not really.”

  “What?” said Gavin, clearly surprised but still gentle. “A catch like you, with honors in biology? There wasn’t any lab or something that would take you?”

  Staring at her lunch tray like it was her toast that had posed the question, Pembroke shrugged. “Nothing local, anyway.”

  Ah. Pembroke had been a commuter—a resident of this college town since the day she’d been born. Japan had been her one shot at widening her horizons just a bit. But even now, as she was about to cross that stage tomorrow and graduate college, she apparently had no interest in broadening her horizons. Lilac never could understand people like that. “And you can’t move because…?”

  Pembroke snapped her eyes up at that. “I didn’t apply to any jobs outside the area,” she said curtly, as if that were the end of it.

  Gavin wouldn’t let her shut the conversation down. “Well, maybe you can think about med school or nursing school. They need medical professionals everywhere.”

  Lilac couldn’t picture Pembroke as a doctor or a nurse—she had no personality to speak of. She knew Brielle and Pembroke bonded over all their TV shows and geeky movies, but she had never gotten into that herself, so she hadn’t been able to follow along. Still, those types of conversations seemed to be the only reason Pembroke ever came to life. Little help that would be in a medical emergency, though.